Beth's Adventures in Mbarara Uganda

One day, Terri drove Debbie and I to Lake Mburu (only about 45 minutes away from Mbarara) to the National Park, where lots of zebras live. On the way to the park, Terri hit a bird, which got stuck pretty good in the grate of her truck. When we got to the park and were going through the gate, the park ranger told us we might have to pay since there was a bird stuck in the truck. He said some park rangers might think we hit it in the park and charge us money! Terri told him, essentially, that it was too bad because we weren't touching it!

Since she has a roof rack, we decided to ride up top; unfortunately we weren't warned to bring something to sit on so we ended up with grate-shaped bruises on our rears. Even as we grimaced through the pain as we flew over bumps, we were smiling all the way. It was like riding a roller coaster. I think I only ate a couple of bugs...and thank goodness I had my Hollywood shades on to protect my eyes!

When we got to the end of the drive, there is a beautiful lake where hippos live. There was a beautiful buffalo with lots of birds on it (see my pictures at: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent). I tried to pet a warthog...oops! He was NOT happy, so he snorted at me and tried to get me! We didn't see any hippos at the place where they usually are, so we walked over to another piece of shoreline and heard them. We got a couple of pictures and then heard some rustling in the bushes next to us. Two ladies from the UK told us that the most dangerous animals are hippos and that it sounded like there were some in the bushes next to us--OOPS! We got out of there pretty quickly!

Anyhow, it was a great afternoon. Debbie and I both kept saying, "Wow! It's so beautiful!" or "Everything is so green!" or "I can't believe I'm in Africa!" Those are things that I find myself saying pretty regularly. Well, not the green thing anymore...since it's currently dry season.

We saw an amazing sunset and there are lots of pictures of that too...unfortunately, pictures can only capture about 50% of the true beauty. Sorry...but please enjoy the pictures anyhow!

On December 10th, my younger sister, Debbie, came for a short visit. Leading up to her visit, I had been VERY busy, with preparations for the holidays and all that comes with that. Logistics of getting out to Entebbe to pick her up were a little fuzzy because plans seemed to change continually. I had reservations for us to go rafting on the Nile River on Sunday, but they kept telling me that there wouldn’t be any trips on Sunday since they didn’t have enough people to make a run down the river.

Anyhow, in a nutshell (since I don’t have much time because power is out, yet again, and I’m not sure how long my battery will last), Lori finally decided to take me to Entebbe to pick up Debbie. On Friday around 2pm, she said, “Can you be ready to leave in 30 minutes?” Of course, I had not planned on leaving until the next day after team worship. I hadn’t eaten lunch or packed or even cleaned my room up in preparation for Debbie to arrive. But I managed to grab some things together and be ready to leave with Lori. We got to Kampala in the midst of lots of traffic and ate a late dinner at a nice little Italian place. Then we went and crashed at Ellen’s house, a Kampala missionary. Saturday, we spent the day shopping in Kampala and then drove the remaining hour to Entebbe to pick up my sister at 10pm. Of course, her flight came in late and it seemed like we were waiting FOREVER! Finally, she arrived and we headed back to our hotel in Entebbe, where I celebrated Christmas a little early (at least, it sure did feel like that, with all the goodies Debbie had brought me from America!). Debbie and I were up talking until early in the morning. I would guess we got about 3 hours of sleep total. Debbie will tell you that the reason we didn’t sleep much was because I was talking, but I will stick to my story that it was hot and the fan oscillating back and forth between us was not doing a good enough job of keeping us cool and mosquito-free.

Luckily, the rafting people said that a few others had signed on to go rafting so they would indeed be taking a trip on Sunday. So we had to get up and get on the road to Kampala so that we could make it to our rafting bus at 730 am. From there, we went to Jinja, where we spent a great day rafting the Nile River! (read more about this in another post, which I will hopefully do soon!)

After rafting, we spent the night in Jinja with the Bogels, another missionary family. We headed to Kampala early in the morning to catch ANOTHER ride “home” to Mbarara. We made a quick stop at the equator, where we took some pictures and even saw the demonstration of how water drains in opposite directions on each side of the equator. (My dad wanted video of this!) When we finally arrived in Mbarara, we stopped at home and threw on skirts so that we could run to a Christmas party held at Amy Naramore’s home for our Ladies Town Church Bible Study group. Eventually, we made our way to the Bakers for dinner. We stayed and visited with them until late in the evening and then got a great night’s sleep finally!

Tuesday, Debbie went to school with me and helped me with my “Pioneer Day.” (Read more about this later in a post…if I ever get around to it!) Her help was invaluable and I never would have been able to pull it all off without her help. I think we had dinner with the Naramores that night, but I can’t be totally sure.

Wednesday, Debbie went to the hospital to check up on one of Danny’s friends and to just get a glimpse of the health-care situation here in Uganda. That night, we headed to the Glissons for our school Christmas program. (Read more about this later!)

Thursday was our last day of school and we had our Christmas party (combined kindergarten, 2nd grade and 4th grade). Debbie ended up going to the village for a short visit with Lori though. Thursday afternoon, Debbie and I headed to Ladies’ Bible Study (late of course) only to leave and head out to Nyakinengo, the village where we were going to do our bonding. (Of course, read more about this later!)

Friday around 3 pm, we left Nyakinengo to go straight to the hospital so I could give blood for Isaac, Danny’s friend. Then we went home, SHOWERED and kind of just crashed! We headed to the Glissons that night to watch a movie, during which I fell asleep!

I think on Saturday, we had a low-key, mellow-kind-of day. We didn’t do much. I think we went swimming with the Baker kids and Debbie played soccer with the neighborhood kids for “Sword and Soccer.” We had dinner with the Bakers again, and even got to play Pinnochle! Can you believe that ?!? Debbie and I stayed there until 4 am enjoying our time with Jay and Andrea.

Sunday, we went to town church, lunch at Lakeview Hotel, and then headed out to Lake Mburo to see the animals. It was really cool! We got to ride on top of Terri’s truck. (Of course, we didn’t bring pillows or blankets or anything, so our rear-ends were SORE by the end…especially since Terri seemed to really enjoy speeding over bumps and looking at us with a big grin on her face!) We saw TONS of zebras and lots of other animals. (See my pictures, which I’ll get around to posting SOON, hopefully at http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent/my_photos ) Terri’s highlight was seeing a warthog (man are they UGLY!) try to charge me…guess I got a little too close to him. I was only trying to pet him. Oh well, lesson learned. The scenery and sunset were BEAUTIFUL! Debbie and I kept saying to each other, “Man it is SO green and pretty!” Unfortunately, I don’t think you can fully experience the beauty without actually being here. Sure, pictures are worth a thousand words, but they really don’t capture the true beauty I am able to see and experience here. Man, I feel so blessed!

Okay, Monday Debbie and I hung out and spent lots of time at the Bakers’ compound most of the day. Not much to share about that day. Oh, we took Hannah and Curt into town to shop for our white elephant gifts. We visited with Isaac at the hospital again. He seemed to be getting worse, but there really wasn’t anything we could do, but pray. His family asked for a pastor to pray over him and I looked to Debbie. (She IS a nurse, you know, who has experience dealing with sick and dying people.) But she just looked back at me and told me I was a missionary teacher. She reasoned that since I had the word “missionary” in my title, I should be the on praying for him. It was sad, and there wasn’t anything else to do, so I laid my hands on him and prayed for him as best I could. Hopefully the Holy Spirit interceded here on my incompetent behalf. We ended Monday having dinner with the Glissons.

Tuesday, we left early for Queen Elizabeth Game Park and returned from there Wednesday night. (Read all about this after I write about it an post it! Also, you‘ll have to go to my picture website to see all the amazing pictures we took--LOTS of great elephant pictures!)

Wednesday night, Amy and her family got in and we had dinner with them.

Thursday, Terri, Amy and her family got up and left early to go the Game Park. Debbie and I spent most of the day baking cookies for the cookie exchange at the Bakers’ house. Thursday night was a POWER OUT night, but we finally made it to the Bakers for the Christmas white elephant gift exchange and cookie swap. It was a fun night, which included a surprise visit by Santa Claus and a special version of “Twelve Days of Christmas” sung to us by Nick and Renee.

Friday morning, Debbie and I headed to Kampala for some souvenir shopping. Around 6, she was on her way to Entebbe to catch her flight home and I was on my to Ellen’s to sleep for the night.

This concludes the “QUICK OVERVIEW” of my sister’s visit. (Surely, you know that I’m not so good at telling stories…they always turn into novels!) Hopefully, I’ll get around to writing more specifically about some of the events that took place while she was here SOON. I’m also hoping to post lots of pictures soon!

When our team went to Kampala for a team retreat the last week in October, we stayed at the “American Club,” a nice hotel that serves many American foods--like icecream!
Anyhow, it is a goal for our team to have 2 retreats each year. This particular one was focused more on “work,” as everyone worked hard to edit an existing team policies document. As teachers, Amy and I were in charge of caring for the children for a couple of the morning sessions. I planned one morning, where we learned about spiders and did several activities which centered on spiders. For example, we made spider cupcakes, created spider webs out of yarn, did some spider dances and even made spiders on the sand volleyball court. It was lots of fun and very challenging to find things to keep kids aged 18 months - 4th grade entertained for several hours.
One night, the adults all went out to dinner at Mamba Point, a VERY fancy Italian restaurant.
Sunday morning, after taking MANY agonizing team pictures (which turned out great!) we had some worship time together as a team. Then we headed to the quarterly meeting Fall Festival.
It was a fun “get- away” from Mbarara and a great time to bond with my teammates.
*See the pictures from Team Retreat at: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent/my_photos

Halloween is not a holiday that is celebrated or even known about here in Uganda. As Americans, we had to come up with an alternate plan for celebrating this holiday. So, on Sunday October 23rd (yes, I know that’s a whole week BEFORE Halloween), we had a “Fall Festival” for all of team and school kids. It was kind of interesting--that is, trying to explain these crazy American customs-- to our Korean and Japanese students.

The kids showed up in costumes, and we played lots of fun games, earning candy as prizes. In adddition to the traditional carnival-type games, there was apple-bobbing (my personal favorite), face-painting and even cookie-decorating. (Man, I wonder who was the unlucky person who had to make so many pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies!)

After the children exhausted all of the game stations, they piled into Danny’s trailer which was filled with HAY! Haha…just kidding! It was filled with BANANA LEAVES, the next best thing! They drove around town a bit, singing some silly songs and just having a grand ol’ time. While they were doing that, most of the adults were busy preparing our supper by cooking “sausages” (read: “hotdogs”) over a bonfire, which we ate with homemade hotdog buns…since you can‘t get them here in Mbarara. We had all sorts of interesting picnic-type foods, including home-made potato chips and jello salads.

Great time for the kids and I think some of the adults even had fun! See the pictures I’ve posted at my picture website: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent/my_photos

The following weekend, we put on another (very similar) Fall Festival for all the missionaries’ kids at our quarterly meeting in Kampala. This one was much closer to the actual date of Halloween. We didn’t get to go on a “hay-banana leaf ride” but we did have a MOONBOUNCE! Some of us even took the opportunity to wear a DIFFERENT costume! (For those of you who know me, you know how much I hate Halloween, primarily because I hate coming up with good costume ideas. So in Mbarara, I was dressed as a fly-swatter…complete with a couple of dead flies hot-glued to my shirt. In Kampala, I was dressed as a “twin” to Hannah’s African princess. We later decided to call me the “African Queen” and Hannah the “African princess.”

The only thing missing from our Halloween celebrations was decent candy… Reeces anybody??

During my first three months in Mbarara, Cousin Kati (Jay Baker’s first cousin, once removed, or something like that) was a fixture here. It is really strange that she is not here any more…but I guess I’m getting used to it. While she was here, Kati and I spent a lot of time together. She helped with school and at the Bakers a lot. Before she left, we went to Queen Elizabeth National Park for safari, where we stayed at Jacana Lodge. We had a great time. We stopped at the Tea Plantation on the way and enjoyed a nice cup of tea and even had the chance to see lots of beautiful birds. Thanks to Lori, we were able to identify several of them.

We stopped for a quick photo opportunity on the way. It was a real “Lion King” moment, complete with the song, courtesy of my singing! Kati, Lori and Andrea swear up and down that my version was not right . They think my Swahili (if that’s even the language at the beginning) is a little off…hmm…what do they know?

Anyhow, on our way to the lodge, we saw lots of baboons (which, because they had red bottoms, were in heat) and monkeys. The lodge itself was really nice--very rustic. But I liked it. We stayed in our own little “log cabin” and there was no electricity (although there was running water). They ran a generator from 7 - 10 pm and provided us with candles. Andrea found a huge scorpion on her bed and we had quite a laugh trying to kill it!

We hired a guide from the National Park to go with us in search of lions and elephants and all sorts of other wild animals. Caleb was our guide and he was quite beautiful, but I guess that wasn’t enough…because we still didn’t see any lions and the elephants we saw were pretty far away. After a lovely dinner and a LONG night playing with my I-pod, Kati and I finally crashed around 3 am.

We decided to get up for an early morning attempt to see the lions, but our breakfast tea and coffee was delivered late. So we figured we wouldn’t make it before the sun came up and would probably not see any cats anyhow. Andrea and I took a walk through the woods to a bat cave. It was really interesting to learn about the woods we were walking through and the Queen Elizabeth National Park. I would love to tell you all about it, but quite honestly, I really don’t remember much of it. I do remember that the bats were kind of creepy and they smelled bad. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the python, but that may have freaked me out a little too much. While we were on our hike through the woods, Kati and Lori were out looking for lions. . .unfortunately, I don’t think they had much luck.

We spent the afternoon swimming at Jacana, where there were lots of pretty blue and green jumping lizards that apparently bite. Then we headed on home. It was a great time and I’m glad I had the chance to see some of the beautiful scenery here in Uganda. The company wasn’t too bad either. . .hahaha…ninzani--meaning “just kidding.” The company was the best part--just the girls!

The night before Thanksgiving, I was sitting in the dark, peeling and cutting potatoes with the help of Mark Long (a missionary from Kampala). I was one of two people assigned to make mashed potatoes for everyone. The next morning, my sore little hands were peeling and cutting apples so I could make apple pies. I spent the morning battling for the use of our oven (since Terri was cooking the turkey and making dressing--with a BLENDER!).

RUSH, RUSH, RUSH…you know me, always running late. I finally got my things made for our Thanksgiving feast (including 2 apple pies with homemade crusts) and made it to the Bakers’ home in time for our 1:00 lunch. It was my first time in the downstairs part of their house, since they have been getting their kitchen re-done (termites, I think!). Interestingly, the tradition of our team is to have ribs, because the turkeys are small and expensive (mostly imported from America?) and just aren’t too great. (In the past, some teams have even tried to raise and kill their own!) Everything was delicious and the company was great too. It just didn’t really feel like Thanksgiving, because it wasn’t cold, there wasn’t any football, and we didn’t even have sweet potato pie. . .

After our scrumptious meal, we had the chance to see the team kids perform a few holiday songs and even a little skit. Then we headed to the Naramores’ home to play some flag football, kickball and some other outdoor relays and games. It was lots of fun. We made our way back to the Bakers’ home to eat leftovers for dinner and then we had a great devotional, followed by lots of fun party games.

Overall, Thanksgiving 2005 was a wonderful time with good friends and good food. I am thankful for the good friends I have made here in Mbarara so far. I am especially thankful for the opportunity I have to be here, experiencing all that I am experiencing.

The place to view my pictures has changed. Please check:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent/my_photos

I am really working to add lots of pictures and update my blog SOOOOOOON......I promise!


Until then...

School started last week, with extended hours from 8:30 - 3:00 Tuesday - Friday. Plus we have school committee meetings OFTEN...trying to get new policies in place.

Power goes out every OTHER night now.

I've started teaching piano lessons to 2 kids.

I've also started teaching the Ladies Bible Study every Thursday at town church.

I babysit one night a week on a rotating basis for families on our team.

I've started getting up early to walk about 2 mornings a week and am trying to hit the "gym" for Ugandan aerobics twice a week.

I'm also planning our team worship for the next two weeks.

All this to say that I'm a little busy!!!

BUT I REALLY WILL TRY HARD TO UPDATE THIS WITH MEANINGFUL STUFF SOON!

SO sorry that it has been so long since I have updated this blog. . . I’m sure we all agree that the holidays season is always a busy time!

It’s hard to believe I’ve been here only FOUR months…it seems like so much longer! And yet, most of the things I want to update you about seem to have happened FOREVER ago…hopefully I can remember them all accurately and with sufficient details!

Let’s start with a school update. It has been a new kind of challenge for me to be teaching 4th graders…especially since I only have FOUR of them and I am in the classroom with them for only 20 hours a week. For this reason, I want to maximize every second that we are together, which of course, means extremely careful planning and lots of preparation to make sure that there is never any “dead time“ during the day. Those of you who know me well are probably finding this all a little funny, especially as you recall that the procrastinator in me usually takes over and I generally fly by the seat of my pants where teaching is involved! I guess I am saying all this to let you know specifically why I find teaching here to be one of my greatest challenges.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT, though! My four students are truly wonderful children, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, charms and annoyances. I guess, however, that this is no different than any other classroom full of students! The difference is that the relationship I have with each student is magnified a lot more due to the fact that there are only four students. Since we’re all foreigners in this country, we have that in common and I have become friends with the families of my students. I have been able to eat dinner with the families of three of my students and have had two of the families to my house for dinner. I feel blessed to have new friends in addition to be learning more about the Korean and Japanese cultures.

Life is not without changes, and neither is school I guess. Our school committee has been diligently meeting for the past few weeks as a follow-up to some professional advice from one of visitors over the Christmas season. Dr. Eloise Hughes met with all of the teachers in preparation for a sabbatical she is planning on taking in the fall to study how Christian colleges and universities can better prepare teachers who would like to teach in a mission field. One immediate change that will occur is that school hours will be extended. My new hours, as of January 10 will be 8:30 am - 3:00 pm. I am very excited about this and look forward to spending more time with the kids in the classroom, doing more fun activities and of course, learning!

I can’t believe how quickly the past 4 months have flown by! I heard from many people that I would have so much free time here and that I would go through many periods where I am “bored out of my mind.” I guess you could say I have yet to experience that aspect of life in Africa. While there is a slower pace here, everything takes much longer to do here: planning and preparing meals, planning and preparing school lessons, laundry, travelling places, etc. Add to that my desire to “not miss anything” and maybe you get a small picture of my life over here.

Although school is only in session 20 hours a week, I would guess that I spend at least 30-35 hours doing school work, even if that’s just walking to town to print things out at a computer center or making photocopies! I am absolutely LOVING my students and I sometimes fear that I am learning more from them than they are learning from me. I’ve had the chance to share meals with my students’ families on several occasions, which has been so culturally educational. (Two of my students are Korean, one is Japanese, and one is American.) Teaching 4th grade is definitely challenging me…especially with only four students! I always feel like I should be doing more with them in the classroom than I am. This causes me to overanalyze things and spend SO much time contemplating the way we do spend our time in the classroom, always trying to maximize the time we are all together in school. We do have lots of fun, though. We recently had both “Pioneer Day” and “Native American Day” as culminating activities of a couple different units we were studying. We made all sorts of tasty treats, did some crafts, and even played some games! We spent themonth of December preparing for our Christmas program. I worked with the 2nd and 4th graders as we collaborated to create a school program for all the parents to come and see. It included some scripture readings, piano solos, songs played on the recorder and of course the singing of some traditional Christmas carols. The program went well and ended with some festive treats!

The upcoming semester begins January 10th. I’m really excited to be setting up a computer (that was donated by a family here) in our tiny classroom (I’m still trying to figure out WHERE to put it!) so that I can start teaching them some computer skills—not thatI’m extremely qualified, but I should at least be able to teach them some basic keyboarding and some of the basic programs. My students will be super excited that we finally got our penpal letters (from Michigan) in the mail! We’ve also been invited to work on a collaborative project with First Colony Church of Christ (our overseeing church) where my students will attempt to create a powerpoint presentation about what it’s like to be a missionary’s kid in Uganda. I’m looking forward to another busy, fun-filled semester with my 4 fourth graders here in Mbarara!

In addition to school, being involved in “team” life seems to take up lots of my time. “Team” is made up of 6 family units and the 3 single teachers. We really are like one, big, happy family! In addition to our team worship/meeting/lunch times every Saturday, I see team members daily and probably share meals with different families at least 3 times a week. The team has been a huge blessing to get to know and has been such a support network for me. Outside of the team circle, I have been blessed to make other friends—both Ugandans and other “Bazungu”. Working with the Ladies Group and Youth Group at the town church have been wonderful ways of connecting with several people here. I’ve also travelled to several different villages and had the opportunity to meet some wonderful friends that way!

Travelling here (as mentioned before) sure does take a long time, and has given me a greater appreciation for the roads and even traffic in the states! I’ve had the chance to go to Kampala (the capital city) a few times, for weekend “shopping” trips. (FOOD shopping, that is…we go to Kampala to stock up on foods—mainly meats that you can’t get here in Mbarara, unless you like the big hunks of cow hanging in the open air market or the live chickens that you have to kill and cook yourself!) Twice, I’ve had the chance to go to Jinja, the source of the Nile River, so that I could go white water rafting down the Nile River! Twice, I’ve gone to Queen Elizabeth National Game Park for safari. Travelling only about an hour away, I’ve been to a beautiful tea plantation and also to Lake Mburo (a National Game Park where there are TONS of zebras). One of my most memorable trips was a weekend trip to Rwanda, where I got to meet go to the orphanage that Ros Carr runs.

My younger sister, Debbie, came to visit for 2 weeks just before Christmas andI had a great time visiting with her and showing her around. She sure did keep me busy…but most of that was me wanting to show her as much as I could in the short time she was here.

You’ll have to check out my blog: http://bethinuganda.blogspot.com to read more about my adventures here in Uganda and http://photos.yahoo.com/etunick@sbcglobal.net to see all the pictures I post online. Also, you can email me at: beth@everydaychurch.net or send me snail mail (or packages!) to PO Box 518, Mbarara, Uganda. Please keep in touch and let me know how things are going for you and your family. I sure do miss you all, especially at this holiday season when I would normally get to see many of you, even if just for a short visit.

Hope you and yours had a blessed holiday and a wonderful start to the new year!